NBC needs to reach beyond a small circle of friends

It's hard to build an audience when all of your gags are inside jokes. Last week, NBC bid adieu to the clever and cartoonlike "30 Rock," a series that brilliantly lampooned the corporate woes of its own flagging network. It was fun to watch, and it won NBC respect for being able to laugh at itself.

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Posted Feb. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Feb. 7, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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It's hard to build an audience when all of your gags are inside jokes. Last week, NBC bid adieu to the clever and cartoonlike "30 Rock," a series that brilliantly lampooned the corporate woes of its own flagging network. It was fun to watch, and it won NBC respect for being able to laugh at itself.

But inside jokes did not translate into ratings.

"Community" (8 p.m. on NBC, TV-PG) returns tonight, with an even tinier frame of reference. It navel-gazes at its own backstage squabbles. At the end of the third season, Dan Harmon, the show's creator and overall manager ("show runner" in Hollywood-speak), was let go. And before the production of the fourth season was complete, actor Chevy Chase left the series.

Tonight's "Community" makes the most of this minor buzz by creating a show-within-a-show gimmick. As the gang prepares for its last year at community college, Abed (Danny Pudi) begins to freak out. He doesn't want to leave school, ever. Britta (Gillian Jacobs) suggests he retreat to a "happy place." In his mind, this is a sitcom starring himself. It's an old-school take on "Community," complete with a laugh track and knee-slapping jokes. And Chase's character, Pierce, is replaced (without notice) by Fred Willard.

In addition to Abed's sitcom fantasy, tonight's season premiere offers a parody of "The Hunger Games," run by the school's absurd, cross-dressing Dean Pelton (Jim Rash). Like all but a handful of network comedies, "Community" can lampoon only subjects falling safely within the realm of popular culture. And this is part of its problem. It's not as smart as shows like "The Daily Show," "The Colbert Report" or "The Simpsons" — series that respect and rely on their audiences' literacy. Nor is it as broad, obvious and smutty as many CBS series that reach a much larger viewership.

One of the show's small pleasures is Alison Brie as the perky overachiever Annie Edison. And half of that fun is comparing her goofy character here to her more tragic role as Trudy Campbell on "Mad Men."

"Community" star Joel McHale can also be seen tonight on "Late Night With Jimmy Fallon."